SDCC 2016: Hands-On With ‘Pac-Man Championship Edition 2’!

Comic con may have ended almost a month ago already, but that won’t stop us here on the site from posting more about it!

While attending preview night, I had the pleasure of getting to try out Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 which had been announced earlier that same day. For those not in the know, Pac-Man Championship Edition was a very popular downloadable title for XBLA, PSN, and Steam back in 2007. it became so popular and well known that the game even received an upgraded version 3 year later with Championship Edition DX which added more mazes, ghosts, modes, and more!

From what I got to play so far, I can easily say that Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 has added and changed up so much stuff, but yet, still feels just as fun and familiar as it did 6 years ago. The gameplay is simple, traverse through a maze for about 5 minutes trying to eat as many pellets, fruit, and ghosts as you can. In the demo I played they introduced a brand new mechanic to the game, bounce pads.

While it may seem a bit of a small addition on the outside, these bounce pads really change up the game. Running onto one will propel Pac-Man in an arc to a corresponding bounce pad. In fact, a lot of the pellet trails will have you weaving in and out of the bounce pads as you flawlessly dodge ghosts. Speaking of ghosts, they’ve gotten quite the change.

Now, the main ghosts still act as they do. You hit them you die, but, the surrounding ghosts have changed quite a bit. The secondary/side ghosts are now a bit more transparent and actually don’t kill you. Instead, they’ll attach themselves to the main ghosts and follow you from there. You can also bump into the ghost line to make the ghost bigger. There are also some really cool instances this time around where if you eat a long ghost trail after getting a power pellet, the game will show a dynamic camera angle of Pac-Man absolutely destroying the ghosts, and it’s just as satisfying as it sounds.

Overall, from what little time I had with it, I was very impressed by how much similar, but different Championship Edition 2 really is. The best part is that the release of the game is only about a month away! The game will launch in the U.S on September 13th 2016 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Were you able to try out the game at Comic Con? What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comments below!